Visitors to the Ponte Vedra Post Office got a little something extra on Monday. Ryan Milton and Patricia Noble, members of Lyndon LaRouche’s Political Action Committee, stood outside the Post Office, greeting passersby with signs and literature calling for the impeachment of President Barack Obama.
"We are campaigning in every town all over the state and country," said Milton.
Milton, who originally hails from the Philadelphia area and Noble, who is originally from Deltona, are part of what they said was a "multi-week tour" across the state to raise funds for the political action committee. The pair held signs with photos of President Obama made to look like Adolf Hitler and passed out literature discussing NASA funding and a "Hilter-like health care policy."
LaRouche is the founder of several political organizations known as the LaRouche movement and has run for President of the United States in eight elections since 1976. In one election LaRouche ran as a Labor Party candidate; in the other seven he ran for the Democratic Party nomination.
Noble said she and Milton were there to help "raise funds for the fight" and that they had received a lot of thumbs up from the community.
"This is not just a we hate Obama campaign," said Milton. "This is about policies that no American would support."
According to Joseph Breckenridge of the United States Post Office Communications Department for Alabama and North Florida, since the protest was on public right of way, Minton and Noble were not violating any laws.
"A table may be set up on the public right of way," said Breckenridge. "Advocating a policy or point of view is okay. We regard the front of the Post Office as a part of the ‘marketplace of ideas.’
Breckenridge detailed the policies that the USPS does not support in an e-mail. These policies state that participants may not set up a table on Postal property nor can they place signs or stands in the ground; the literature they distribute may not in whole or in part solicit donations for any cause; they may not impede the flow of traffic nor may they interfere with customers of the Postal Office and they may not campaign on Postal property.
According to Christian Hilland, spokesman for the Federal Elections Committee, there is nothing under the Federal Election Campaign Act that would prohibit anyone from campaigning on federal property. Hilland said any campaign funds that were raised as a result of Monday’s actions would need to be reported to the committee.
A political action committee is the name given to a private group organized with the intent to elect a political candidate or to advance the outcome of an issue or legislation.
sarakaufman@pontevedrarecorder.com
(904)285-8831 ext. 16
February 28th 2010 - 4:08PM